@budhat , as a resident alien, US will tax you on world income. Are you saying that you have foreign income while having tax home in a foreign country ( abroad ) or that you are having foreign income while living in the USA ( US tax home )? Is this wages from a foreign entity, self-employment income or what ? Which country?
You are a citizen of which country ? Is 2019 your first year as a Green Card holder ?
Hi @pk, There's a new law that takes effect in 2020 which requires Green Card holders to admit that they are an immigrant on their tax returns.
I was just filing my taxes using turbo tax and got stuck at the end right before filing it(after paying) because I couldn't find a way to specify that I'm an immigrant on my tax returns.
@bikrant , I do not know of and to the best of my knowledge there is no such requirement for Green Card -- holders for tax purposes --- there is always DHS requirements to report address/ country of citizenship etc. but not for IRS or State Taxes. Please tell me where you are seeing this requirement and in TurboTax ?
@pk, I was reading this article and several others that mentioned this. This is a new USCIS law that requires green holders to state that they are an immigrant on 1040 form.
Here is the link to one of them. https://www.nbc-2.com/story/41563323/new-green-card-laws-2020
Hello @bikrant , I looked at the article you referred --- and also USCIS plus Title 8 which covers the operation and laws surrounding DHS . There is no such requirement for Green Card holders and there is no place on form 1040 for such entry. Therefore I have to assume that the article author misunderstood or confused requirements of form 1040 and 1040-NR ( cannot be filed through TurboTax and is ONLY for Non-Resident Aliens ).
Suggest you file your form normally , since you are a Green Card Holder ( and therefore taxed on world income) and present in the USA.
I heard of the news as well and was told that you have to specify which country and city you cam from if you are a green cardholder. It's the space where it asks for a foreign country and foreign city or state and postcode right below your US address. Is there a way we can add details to 1040 form before TurboTax files it?
You do not need to specify on the US tax return which country and city you came from if you are a green card holder.
Frequenty Asked Questions About International Individual Tax Matters scroll down to the subject, Green Card Holders
[Edited 02.23.20 | 1:21 pm]
Hi guys,
Did anyone found a solution yet, I checked with my CPA, but they are not aware of such requirement.
Please share your info.
@Rajkyel1 , Please answers above -- there is NO requirement , nor any space for, to provide your citizenship details on form 1040. This rumor about the the requirement is FALSE, Has been answered above as such.
If you are claiming Tax Treaty benefits , then YES, IRS would need to confirm your citizenship -- this is done on forms like 8833 / 8831/8843 etc. Nothing to do directly with form 1040.
@pk the rumour may be false but we are really struggling here because we dont know what to do and what to believe, and also there is indeed a section on the form 1040 where you can enter your country of origin, adress and zip code also. It has always been there even in the old 1040 forms. In the new one its even obvious because its on the front page. Its just that i dont seem to find any option on how to do that in Turbotax. If you go to a Tax office for sure you can do it there. The problem is to save some money which for most self employed people is crucial.
@Orsi wrote:
@pk the rumour may be false but we are really struggling here because we dont know what to do and what to believe, and also there is indeed a section on the form 1040 where you can enter your country of origin, adress and zip code also. It has always been there even in the old 1040 forms. In the new one its even obvious because its on the front page. Its just that i dont seem to find any option on how to do that in Turbotax. If you go to a Tax office for sure you can do it there. The problem is to save some money which for most self employed people is crucial.
You are referring to the mailing address for where you would receive mail that is on the first page of the Form 1040.
If your Mailing Address (
not
your country of origin) is in a foreign country, you can enter that in TurboTax in the My Info section when using the online editions.On the Mailing Address page, choose Foreign Country from the dropdown under Type of mailing address.
That will give you ability to enter the Province or State, Postal Code and Country.
@DoninGA ughhh this is so confusing and nonsense also. Generally i agree with you that such thing is false but in the same time i am also worried. I did contact the USCIS office though today and both representatives i talked with about the "New USCIS rules" mentioned in the news article, had no idea what i was talking about. Also they told me that if any new rule was issued they would have included it in the USCIS website (wich makes sense). Anyway i went even further and contacted the news author and i just reveived a "seen" icon with no answer in it. I dont know i guess its his interpretation of the form 1040 in order to get some clicks? Clickbait? I dont know. Oh and by the way here is the article just in case you wanna see it, looks so legit...
https://www.nbc-2.com/story/41563323/new-green-card-laws-2020
I also came across the same website regarding the news on new rules for green card holders but was not able to find anything new on irs website or anywhere else on the web that could further explain the case.
Orsi,
I am in the same boat too. i called USCIS and couldnt get connected to anyone. I talked to an attorney and he told me that filing 1040 itself means declaring yourself as a US citizen OR permanent resident OR atleast an immigrant. It seems that the issue is that you and I are looking at it as in "Declare yourself as immigrant/green card holder if you are not a citizen", and from the perspective of IRS/USCIS it is " dont declare yourself non-immigrant and cheat on taxes, while you are an immigrant and must pay resident taxes". So i think its not the issue of dont call yourself a citizen, but rather dont declare yourself as non-immigrant. As by the virtue of filing 1040 and not 1040NR, we are already 'declaring' it. Also because there is no specific way of declaring oneself as an immigrant on 1040 fform. Above definition of foreign country by domainGA also makes sense in that light. Tell me what you have concluded.
Orisi,
I called up an immigration lawyer and asked about this concern. She said that she is not aware of any such rule in this regard and a tax specialist will be better equipped to answer in this concern.
Also, i saw the same news article dated Jan14th, 2020, as then some law firms have also copied from here. But dates on all articles on those law firms are after Jan14th, 2020, which suggests that they took it from this article. Can you tell me how did you contact the news channel for this?
umarbutt,
I sent an email to one of the offices of one of the website which posted it and they replied that the person who originally posted it, does not work with them anymore.
I also spoke to an immigration attorney (paid $160.00 too for only one question), she told me that she keeps herself updated everyday with USCIS news but she is not aware of any such news in this regard. She also said too contact a tax consultant in this regard.
My tax specialist already told me that i just need to fill 1040. And in addition she will add 'green card' in the 'background' info which IRS can see but is not visible on the 1040 form. So it seems like this is more of a USCIS related thing, than tax related.
I have already paid 2019 taxes through Turbotax and couldn't a place where I can add my green card status.
I also spoke with an attorney, and also called one of the law firms (hykel law firm) to be exact. Called godoy law firm (they also posted article and they wanted 400$ for this). They checked with their attorneys and said that they are not aware ,and IRS is in better position to speak to it. But assuming we are in same boat ( green card), IRS is wants to collect tax from us like a US citizen, which is fine. This rule (if there is) is from USCIS, coz they would want us to file tax in correct status. And it seems that as per immigration attorneys, as long as we do it, we have declared ourselves in correct status.
There is no place on the 1040 form to declare green card. My tax preparer told me that she is declaring this in background which IRS can see, but i wont be able to see on 1040. So it doesnt look like a big deal.
I have seen IRS website as well, and according to them we MUST file taxes as citizens do, and report all of our income. I didnt see any requirement of declaring yourself as immigrant or green card holder.
I am assuming now that NBC2 was not careful with words, and instead of properly saying that its the issue of immigrant VS non-immigrant, instead of immigrant VS citizen. Because I found many references to USCIS's public charge rule. but nothing about this issue.
Let's try this one more time ----
(1) US citizen/Resident(Green Card ) / Resident for tax purposes all file using form 1040 and taxed on your WORLD income i.e. income from all sources domestic and foreign.
(2) Unless the Resident for Tax purposes ( i.e. NOT an immigrant per USICS ) wishes to take advantage of Treaty benefits , there is NO purpose/requirement for IRS to ask for your citizenship or immigration status. The only reason IRS asks for such information on forms 8831,8841,8843 etc. is to ascertain that the taxpayer's claim of treaty benefit is legitimate. USCIS does not administer tax treaty conditions/ benefits
(3) If you are a Non-Resident Alien ( non-work visas like F, J, etc. ) and have not passed the Substantial Presence , Test you are taxed ONLY on your US sourced / connected income and you report this on form 1040-NR or 1040-NR-EZ. Both of these forms require you to provide your immigration information such country of citizenship, type of visa, passport details etc. etc. Not that you CANNOT use TurboTax to file such returns.
In summary , while I will refrain from commenting on this referred article, the requirement to report your immigration information is NOT true --- from your contacts with the Immigration Dept, they are saying NO and yet this rumor persists. Please people, stop amplifying this false rumor. TurboTax and all other tax service providers all will tell you the same thing.
I stand down.
On the 1040 form ,it mentions foreign address but to the best of my understanding from looking at the form it means that: if you have a foreign address.
So only if you have a foreign address we need to fill that line. I can not find a single line on the instructions or on the form which distinguishes between a citizen/green card or even a H1B to differentiate between who is filing the taxes.
@ champ, pk
Thanks for your explanation. We understand and agree with what you said. Its just that we wanted to be sure that we won't make any mistake unknowingly, which can later become a problem at the time of naturalization, so we wanted to be certain beyond reasonable doubt.